{"id":59433,"date":"2026-09-01T17:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/59433\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T17:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:07:18","slug":"callaway-good-good-see-key-executives-exit-after-controversial-ad-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/59433\/","title":{"rendered":"Callaway, Good Good See Key Executives Exit After Controversial Ad Fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fukuoka,<\/a> Fukuoka, Japan May 21, 2026: A wide selection of golf clubs on special sale at a sports store in Japan symbolizes consumerism, leisure, and the booming market for golf equipment and sporting goods in the retail sector. *** Gro\u00dfe Auswahl an Golfschl\u00e4gern im Sonderverkauf eines Sportgesch\u00e4fts in Japan symbolisiert Konsum, Freizeit und den boomenden Markt f\u00fcr Golfausr\u00fcstung sowie Sportartikel im Einzelhandel. \u00a9IMAGO\/Bihlmayerfotografie <\/p>\n

Weeks after Callaway and Good Good Golf’s driver ad showed cofounder Garrett Clark shoving fellow creator Alexis Miestowski to the ground, the fallout has claimed its first jobs, David Rumsey first reported on X<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Good Good VP of brand and marketing Jeffrey Lefkovits has been fired, and Callaway director of content and production Alex Upegui is departing the company, according to people familiar with the moves. At least one additional Good Good employee, not yet identified, is also being let go. The departures mark the clearest sign yet that the controversy has reached beyond severed business ties and into the ranks of the people who greenlit the ad in the first place. <\/p>\n

Upegui has held the role since 2023 and is believed to be the highest-ranking Callaway employee who signed off on the ad. Lefkovits’ exit stings more given the timing: he’d only been promoted to VP of brand and marketing in June. <\/p>\n

The personnel changes follow a string of corporate moves that unraveled quickly last week. Callaway ended its partnership with the YouTube-driven Good Good brand, and Good Good in turn walked away from its title sponsorship of a PGA Tour event. That event, still slated for November, is now listed as the Austin Championship rather than the Good Good Championship. Golf Channel also scrapped Big Break x Good Good, a planned revival of its old reality competition series, and retailers including Golf Galaxy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, PGA Tour Superstore, and Target have pulled Good Good merchandise from shelves. <\/p>\n

Good Good Golf keeps making headlines, and there’s always more happening behind the scenes. Subscribe for more interesting stories.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Callaway CEO Chip Brewer said in an Aug. 25 statement that Callaway was running internal and external investigations and had already changed its approval process. Two days later, the company said much the same thing again: its content review hadn’t been thorough enough, and it had taken corrective action. <\/p>\n

Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick offered a comparable account on the Good Good side. He told Front Office Sports that his marketing team had approved the ad and that the company had removed those responsible, though he declined to name them. Kendrick also admitted he had not personally reviewed the ad before it aired. <\/p>\n

“The biggest thing is we realized we have to put better processes in place,” Kendrick said. <\/p>\n

The co-branded campaign was approved by both companies’ marketing teams, while Good Good CEO Matt Kendrick said he had not personally reviewed it before release. FOS further reported that Lefkovits, Callaway, and Good Good declined to comment for this story, and Upegui could not be reached. <\/p>\n

That said, Kendrick had criticized Callaway on X over how the company handled the controversy after the two sides split. <\/p>\n

“Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it,” Kendrick wrote. “30 for 39 will be legendary”. <\/p>\n

The CEO also replied to several other posts, like Barstool Sports personality Dan “Big Cat” Katz. And as FOS reported, it was among those replies that Kendrick said that he was “not opposed” to suing Callaway. The tweet has since been deleted. <\/p>\n

But when Front Office Sports later asked whether legal action was actually under consideration, Kendrick said, ‘No, we’re not thinking about that,’ describing the post as an off-the-cuff response.” <\/p>\n

Trending Articles <\/p>\n

The post Callaway, Good Good See Key Executives Exit After Controversial Ad Fallout<\/a> appeared first on EssentiallySports<\/a>. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fukuoka, Japan May 21, 2026: A wide selection of golf clubs on special sale at a sports store…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3017],"tags":[3053,21476,6509,21512,22104,208,22103],"class_list":["post-59433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-callaway","tag-callaway","tag-golf-galaxy","tag-good-good","tag-kendrick","tag-lefkovits","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-upegui"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}